Kiszla: Kyle Orton must leave Denver Broncos ASAP

Unless the Broncos want to deal with the messy drama of a quarterback controversy, Kyle Orton needs to be gone from Denver within 72 hours.

Pro football is officially back in business after 4 1/2 months of contentious labor strife, but does Denver truly know what it's doing at quarterback?

We do know Broncomaniacs want Tim Tebow, whose popularity with fans is way out of whack with a quarterback boasting five touchdown passes on his NFL resume. He is the people's choice.

But here's a sneaking suspicion the team's braintrust of executive John Elway, coach John Fox and general manager Brian Xanders isn't 100 percent certain who is the best quarterback for the job.

Let the madness begin.

During what could be the most frenzied meat market in NFL history, as 32 teams dump players, sign free agents and reshape rosters so quickly that expensive mistakes seem certain to be made throughout the league, Broncos president Joe Ellis stressed that a lack of experience working together won't be used as a crutch by his new management team.

How quickly the Broncos disarm or escalate this quarterback controversy will be the first true competency test for the three-headed regime of Elway, Fox and Xanders.

"Game on," Tebow tweeted Monday, as his fellow players agreed it was time to return to work.

With the sun beating down on a high school field in suburban Denver, the lone Broncos quarterback sweating during the final morning of conditioning workouts that players conducted during the lockout was neither Tebow nor Orton. It was Brady Quinn.

The NFL is a regimented institution known to be about as free-flowing as the line at the Department of Motor Vehicles. So I asked Quinn how big an adjustment it will be to put together a roster, install systems of a new coaching staff and be prepared to beat the Oakland Raiders by kickoff on Sept. 12.

Post sports columnist Mark Kiszla fields your feedback. Look for it in Kickin' It With Kiz on Sundays.

"It's going to be similar to playing a pickup game of basketball," Quinn replied. "You've got some guys you've played with in the gym, and other guys are always coming and going. You're just trying to get in a flow."

All that jazz makes a coach nervous, so Quinn believes the No. 1 challenge for Denver's quarterback will be to conduct this chaos as smoothly as possible.

If that's the criteria, then the best man for the job would appear to be Orton. His experience alone could reduce blood pressure while Fox tries to restore a semblance of competency to the Broncos.

But one of the great myths of sports is all football decisions are based on merit.

When deciding who starts at quarterback for the Broncos in a year when the NFL tested the loyalty of fans, you had better believe salary cap economics, the marketing of team merchandise and community sentiment will also play a role.

For a franchise squeezed by salary cap restrictions plus obvious personnel needs at defensive tackle and running back, it makes little sense to keep Orton and his $8.8 million salary on the books.

Orton will not be happy shaking a pompom for Tebow from the sideline. There will be no peace at Dove Valley until Orton is traded. What would Fox ultimately prefer, a potential locker-room debate regarding the quarterback, or the promise of a future third- round draft choice obtained in trade?

The Broncos have been known as a team of too much controversy and too few victories.

You thought the drama left the building with the departure of unpopular coach Josh McDaniels?

One-day event to run slide down University HillIt's not quite the alternative mode of transportation that Boulder's used to, but, for one day this summer, residents will be able to traverse several city blocks atop inflatable tubes.

"The Harder They Come" (Ecco), by T.C. Boyle T.C. Boyle's new book is about serious subject matters: a tourist from a cruise liner killing a robber at a port of call, a mentally ill young man running around with an assault rifle in the coastal forests of northern California, a radical movement that doesn't recognize the legitimacy of laws or Full Story